J. Gordon Coogler
John Gordon Coogler (1865-1901) was an American poet, considered a prolific producer of bad verse. Essayist H.L. Mencken is credited with assuring Coogler's lasting fame as a poetaster by mocking him as an example of the supposedly poor state of arts and letters in the American South. Life Coogler was born in South Carolina during the last year of the American Civil War, and spent his entire life in that state. After his father's death in 1880, Coogler went to work to support his mother and 2 sisters. He opened a shop advertising "Poems Written While You Wait." Although his verses attracted ridicule, he sought to promote his business by distributing self-published booklets of original poems. According to his obituary in the Columbia State newspaper, Coogler published 5,000 short collections of original verse during his lifetime, besides 2 versions of his book-length collection titled Purely Original Verse.Bryan Giemza, "J. Gordon Coogler," in Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary, edited by Joseph M. Flora, Amber Vogel, and Bryan Albin Giemza (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006): p. 79. Writing Coogler's verse attracted mocking attention from prominent American magazines, including Puck and Munsey's Magazine. Coogler once complained in verse about what he considered the unfairness of literary critics: Oh you critics! — If an author errs in a single line, That line you’ll surely quote, And will give it as a sample fair Of all he ever wrote. Critical reputation Nearly 2 decades after Coogler's death, H.L. Mencken selected the following brief poem as the motto of his 1920 essay "The Sahara of the Bozart": Alas! for the South, her books have grown fewer — She never was much given to literature. Mencken went on to mock southern literature by crowning Coogler as "the last bard of Dixie." From the 1890s into the 20th century, newspapers quoted that unintentionally humorous couplet, often from memory and in garbled form. Little else about Coogler was remembered besides his identity as a southerner.Edmund Pearson, "The Tribe of Gifted Hopkins," in Queer Books (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928): 77. Recognition Conservative political commentator R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., editor of The American Spectator, has been awarding the annual J. Gordon Coogler Award for "worst book of the year" since 1975. Given Tyrell's politics, the award has usually gone to the year's least conservative book on politics,J. Gordon Coogler Award Winners, GoodReads. Web, July 25, 2013. often the one most praised in the New York Review of Books.R. Emmett Tyrell, "Award Rescinded, Shawcross Forgiven," American Spectator, June 30, 2011, American Spectator Foundation. Web, July 25, 2013. According to literary critic Bryan Giemza, other "mock-serious Coogler societies" exist and grant awards for bad writing. The personal papers of J. Gordon Coogler are housed at the University of South Carolina. Publications *''Purely Original Verse, 5 editions. 1891-1897. *Purely Original Verse: Complete works, and a number of new productions, in one volume''. Columbia, SC: privately printed, 1897. See also *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems *J. Gordon Coogler at PoemHunter (2 poems) ;Books *J. Gordon Coogler at Amazon.com ;About *J. Gordon Coogler at Find a Grave Category:1865 births Category:1901 deaths Category:American poets Category:Writers from South Carolina Category:19th-century American people Category:Poetasters Category:Poets Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets